Wednesday, April 29, 2009

PDE Mahabharata: The Sons of Pandu

Reading Guide. In this episode, you will see how Pandu gets sons, despite having been cursed by the sage whom he killed while the sage was in the form of a deer, and also how that curse will bring about Pandu's death.

Image: The practice of a widow burning herself on her husband's funeral pyre is called sati ("suttee" in English). This practice is now illegal in India, but it was still practiced in modern times; the illustration of a sati ceremony below dates to around 1800. You can read more at Wikipedia: Suttee.

King Pandu was followed by his doom. One day, as it chanced, he met with Madri, his favorite wife; they wandered together in a forest, and when he clasped her in his arms, he immediately fell dead as the brahmin had foretold.

His sons, the Pandava brothers, built his funeral pyre so that his soul might pass to heaven. Both Kunti and Madri desired to be burned with him, and they debated together which of them should follow her lord to the region of the dead.

Said Kunti, "I must go hence with my lord. I was his first wife and chief rani. O Madri, yield me his body and rear our children together. O let me achieve what must be achieved."

Madri said, "Speak not so, for I should be the chosen one. I was King Pandu's favorite wife, and he died because that he loved me. O sister, if I survived thee I should not be able to rear our children as thou canst rear them. Do not refuse thy sanction to this which is dear unto my heart."

So they held dispute, nor could agree, but the brahmins, who heard them, said that Madri must be burned with King Pandu, having been his favorite wife. And so it came to pass that Madri laid herself on the pyre, and she passed in flames with her beloved lord, that bull among men.